Dive Brief:

• Bluesphere Corp. broke ground at its new US headquarters and its $27 million waste-to-energy facility, both are located in Charlotte, NC
• The 5.2 megawatt plant will use food waste to generate renewable energy.
• The Blue Sphere project will partner with Orbit Energy of Raleigh, and will use its anaerobic digester technology on site.

Dive Insight:

In addition to the Charlotte project, Shlomi Palas, the CEO of Bluesphere said the company plans to close on another food-to-energy plant in Johnston, RI, within a week.

Gary Kuehl, chief of mergers and acquisitions for Bluesphere, said the Charlotte facility marks the first biomass plant in the state that is capable of transforming food into energy. He noted that it is the third facility of its kind in the US. The other plants are located in California. Upon completion, the NC facility is expected to be the largest in the nation.